Will Xbox 360 Users Finally Get To Have More Than 100 Friend Limit?

The idea of giving gamers and users for the Xbox 360 more then a limit of 100 friends on their lists has been suggested plenty of times before. In fact there has been even more detailed ideas suggested from the community to have different sub-friends lists within in their main one. This includes so many ideas from nick names, notes on friends and much more. All this however is just simply ideas without the ability to increase the maximum amount of friends you can have on Xbox Live which is currently 100 and has been since Xbox Live was first established with the few titles capable of online play on the original Xbox Console in November of 2002.

Approximately 250,000 subscribers signed up within two months of the launch of Xbox Live in 2002 with it eventually reaching 20 million subscribers by May of 2009. It was announced not too long after that Xbox Live support for the original Xbox games would be discontinued as of April 14, 2010 with Xbox 360 basically replacing the original Xbox. With this closure running smoothly there was a small unexpected thing that occurred. Around 20 gamers continued to play over Xbox Live for nearly a month afterwards by leaving their consoles on connected to, a very popular game at the time, which was Halo 2. The dedicated fans of the game refused to let the servers be shutdown by staying online until the Xbox Live user APACHE N4SIR, the final user to play on the original Xbox’s Live Service, was finally disconnected on May 11, 2010.

This was what was really keeping Microsoft from increasing the friend list of Xbox Live users from 100 friends. Whether Microsoft wants, intended on it or simply will do it is aside the point from the fact that they could not do it with the Halo 2 support up and running. The way the original Xbox Live system was setup was somehow where the number of friends you could have was strongly integrated with the Xbox Live system, so with the Halo 2 servers still up and running, the number of friends you could have could in no way be increased. Even myself has made personal inquiries into us having more than 100 friends. Sure some people may not need or care about it, but many people would love to have more friends, with sub-lists on what type of games they play with specific friends instead of having to tediously pick someone on your list to delete, just to add a new friend you have recently met online.

Now since the Halo 2 servers have been shutdown and the original Xbox Live service has had the flip switched off for original Xbox Live games, there has been no announcement from Microsoft on an increase in the Live Friends List. Whether you don’t care or frankly do not see any reason to increase the friends list from 100, the bottom line is that one of the main reasons for disconnecting backwards compatible games from Xbox Live online access was so we could have a larger friends list. No word yet on the subject after nearly 3 years of this.

This February 15, 2013 will be the day that the PC servers will be shutdown for Halo 2 online. Now that this has already taken place on the Xbox Console, it will now finally come to an end on the PC, which is the last and only means of playing Halo 2 online. However after February 15th, you can still play Halo 2 multiplayer via LAN, though the online network will be shut down. The PC servers for the game have been monitored closely over the recent months and the multiplayer servers currently peak at around 20 players or less. So it is for good reason that the server should be shutdown at this point. Halo 2 was and still is a great game which was a huge deal when it came to online console play; it will certainly not be forgotten by any means. There is even a rumor of a Halo 2: Anniversary Edition being released.

Back to the subject at hand regarding the increase in the Xbox Live friends list or even a creative alteration in it making it more convenient for users. Could the Halo 2 PC servers be what finally needed to happen for Microsoft to increase the number of friends on your friends lists. It is not likely however it is still possibly and also what was stopping this process from happening on the Xbox Console. Though with the Games for Windows and the online Xbox Live compatibility on the PC, who knows. This could very well be what is needed to happen to make the friends list increase happen. Regardless if you would like to have a larger friends list, or suggest creative ideas or concepts for the Xbox Live friends list, you should make your voice heard. Let you ideas be put out there so Microsoft knows where you stand on the subject, because you play a larger roll in this then you make think. For the amount user pay for an Xbox Live subscription, I believe we should be entitled to such a thing. If you would like to make inquiries on increasing the Xbox Live friends list or simply give ideas, post here on the official Xbox Forums or here. You can currently have only 100 friends on the Playstation 3 Console as well, however, the Playstation 3 has a free online service which has its downsides where you pay Microsoft for Xbox Live to avoid those downsides having strong servers, party chat, a convenient social setting, among other things.

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1 Commenton "Will Xbox 360 Users Finally Get To Have More Than 100 Friend Limit?"

Both system’s 100 friend limit sucks, especially since now all games have online and not all my friends play the same online games… I need 10+ spots for people that play Gran Turismo online… and at least 20 for people that play socom online and counterstrike online… and what if I want to play GTA 4 online? Uncharted 3 online? Bigger friend list means I would actually get to play these games with friends, which would mean I WOULD actually play these games… which means I would be WAY MORE LIKELY to BUY DLC for ALL these games…. hint hint sony + MS…. 😉